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“HOW WOULD LUBITSCH HAVE DONE IT?” asked a sign above Billy Wilder’s door. Ernst Lubitsch (1892-1947) was the first of the great European directors to establish himself in Hollywood and by far the most influential. Having made hit ribald comedies and triumphant spectacles in his native Germany, Lubitsch revolutionized American movies with a sui generis subtlety, style, visual wit, and sophisticated innuendo — “The Lubitsch Touch” (as definitive a trademark as “Master of Suspense” would be for Hitchcock), inventing the modern movie musical and romantic comedy in the process. In the 20s, 30s, and 40s, he was, with Cecil B. DeMille, the most famous director in Hollywood (in Preston Sturges’ Sullivan’s Travels, Veronica Lake is desperate for a screen test with Lubitsch) and, such was his prestige, the only one to retain full artistic control throughout his career. Years after Lubitsch’s death, Wilder (an up-close observer as a two-time scenarist for The Master) remarked, “For years we all tried to find the secret of ‘The Lubitsch Touch.’ If we were lucky, we’d sometimes make a film like Lubitsch. Like Lubitsch, not real Lubitsch.” PROGRAMMED BY BRUCE GOLDSTEIN. SPECIAL THANKS TO PETER SOETJE, DIRECTOR, AND JULIANE WANCKEL, PROGRAM OFFICER-FILM, GOETHE-INSITUT NEW YORK; PAUL GINSBURG, BOB O’NEIL (UNIVERSAL STUDIOS); TODD WEINER (UCLA FILM & TELEVISION ARCHIVE); STEFAN DROESSLER, DIRECTOR OF THE MUNICH FILMMUSEUM (MUNICH FILMMUSEUM); THE MURNAU FOUNDATION; SABRINA KOVATSCH (TRANSIT FILM); WALTER EGGERS, PAUL PUESCHEL (GOETHE-INSTITUT, INTER NATIONES, BONN); ANNE GOODMAN (CRITERION PICTURES); SCHAWN BELSTON (20TH CENTURY FOX); PETER LANGS (IPMA); DENNIS DOROS (MILESTONE); RICHARD MAY, LINDA EVANS-SMITH, MARILEE WOMACK (WARNER BROS.); MIKE MASHON (LIBRARY OF CONGRESS); INTER NATIONES (BONN); INGRID SCHEIB-ROTHBART; AND RUSTY CASSELTON. EXTRA SPECIAL THANKS TO NICOLA LUBITSCH, DAUGHTER OF THE DIRECTOR. |
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“If ever a divine hand reached down from the cinematic heavens,
it was the
one with the Lubitsch Touch! (His) elegant, worldly brand of love and
laughter - and Teutonic knack for pathos - virtually created the romantic
comedy. Film Forum offers a rare glimpse into his timeless wit. Singularly
sharp entertainment! Lubitsch’s movies are about relishing life.”
– Stephen Garrett, Time Out NY
“At once sophisticated and vulgar… Lubitsch was a cannier,
less pretentious,
and more cosmopolitan entertainer than his peers Fritz Lang and F.W.
Murnau - closer in his showbiz sensibility to the Hollywood moguls.”
– J. Hoberman, Village Voice.
Click here to read J. Hoberman's article on Lubitsch in the Village Voice
“I prefer Paris, Paramount to Paris, France.”
– Ernst Lubitsch
CLICK HERE FOR A SCHEDULE OF FILMS IN THE SERIES
MOST FILMS BEFORE 1930 ARE SILENT.
LIVE PIANO ACCOMPANIMENT BY STEVE STERNER
AT SHOWTIMES FOLLOWED BY A MUSICAL NOTE (
)
Click here for a full schedule
of showtimes featuring accompaniment by Steve Sterner
TROUBLE IN PARADISE
“There is no Hollywood movie more insouciantly
amoral... Hedonism was never more nonchalant. Style is substance in Lubitsch's
instantly recognized masterpiece. Graced with a shimmering cast, impeccably
streamlined in evening clothes and impossibly clinging gowns... this comedy
of jewel thieves is itself the prize sparkler of Lubitsch's enterprising
career... Trouble in Paradise combines the visual glitter of Lubitsch's
silent films with the verbal wit of his talkies.” |
 TROUBLE IN PARADISE |
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 SO THIS IS PARIS |
SO THIS IS PARIS(1926) Hilariously over-the-top Modern Dancers Lilyan Tashman and André
Beranger are already looking for extracurricular action when in barges
jealous, cane-wielding married doctor Monte Blue and the four-way complications
begin, resolved in “an astounding Charleston sequence — a
kind of cubist nightmare of what 20s people thought they were really like”
(John Gillett). 70 minutes. “Hilarious… could lay claim to being Hollywood's
quintessential Roaring |
(1925) May McAvoy’s long-lost and now-notorious mom Irene Rich returns,
but demands money from her aristocratic son-in-law for her silence, then tries
to stymie Lord Ronald Colman’s designs on her daughter — but there’s
that darn fan to be accounted for. Witty visual storytelling more than makes
up for the absence of Oscar Wilde’s epigrams.
8:30
THE OYSTER PRINCESS(1919) Astonishing satire of royalism, capitalism, sex — and “foxtrot fever” — as U.S. oyster magnate’s daughter Ossi Oswalda falls for a bankrupt prince. 63 minutes.7:00
CARMEN(1918) Pola Negri at her lustiest, as the amoral Merimée cigar
packer, in a suitably dusty, Berlin-created Spain. 52 minutes. |
 CARMEN |
 THE MAN I KILLED (Broken Lullaby) |
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(1921)
Amidst delightfully bizarre décor — framed by altering screen shapes
— a stalwart bandit chaser falls for bandit’s daughter Pola Negri.
Lubitsch’s German comedy masterpiece, “both an anti-militarist satire
and a wonderful fairy tale” (John Gillett). 85 minutes. “The
Mountain Cat handled sex in that visually witty way which became known as ‘The
Lubitsch Touch;’ but its chief aim was to poke fun at the military, which
it does with a mixture of wild slapstick and razor-sharp satire.” –
David Shipman, The Story of Cinema.
(1919)
The romance of Emil Jannings’ Louis XV with coquettish commoner Pola Negri
leads to the French Revolution in the equally revolutionary epic that launched
Lubitsch’s international fame and led to his exodus to Hollywood. 99 minutes.
8:50
 NINOTCHKA |
NINOTCHKA(1939) GARBO LAUGHS! Bolshevik special envoy Greta Garbo keeps bumbling
Paris emissaries Iranoff, Buljanoff and Kopalski sweating borscht —
until she discovers the joie du chapeau with Count Melvyn Douglas.
Screenplay by Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett.
“Stalin won’t like it.” – New York Times.
“Has the nonchalance and the sophistication that were Lubitsch’s
trademark.” – Pauline Kael. 110 minutes. |
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Gray Horan, great-niece of Greta Garbo, will introduce |
CLUNY BROWN(1946) Brit proprieties take a satiric beating, as romance blossoms
between plumbing buff Jennifer Jones and freeloading Czech refugee Charles
Boyer in Lubitsch’s last completed feature. “A lovely, easygoing
comedy, full of small surprising touches.” – Pauline Kael.
100 minutes. |
 CLUNY BROWN |
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(1943)
Sinner Don Ameche is knockin’ on Devil Laird Cregar’s door, but
does he qualify? Only flashbacks will tell in superbly mellow fantasy of low-key
19th century playboy, blessed with understanding wife Gene Tierney. 112 minutes.
SUN: 1:05, 5:05, 8:55
MON/TUE: 1:05, 5:05
(1932)
Lubitsch was the very top of the seven top directors recruited for this omnibus
picture about a dying millionaire (Richard Bennett, father of Joan & Constance)
who chooses his heirs at random from the phone book, recipients including W.C.
Fields, Gary Cooper, Frances Dee, and, in the memorable Lubitsch sequence, hapless
clerk Charles Laughton. 88 minutes.
SUN: 3:15, 7:10
MON/TUE: 3:15
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| JUNE 23 MON |
(1919) Puppeteer’s daughter Ossi Oswalda impersonates a mechanical
doll to woo a baron’s nephew, with Lubitsch pulling the strings
in a prologue. Plus Meyer From Berlin (1919), with director
Lubitsch as a go-getting schlmiel. 109 minutes total.
7:15
| JUNE 23 MON |
| JUNE 24 TUE |
| JUNE 24 TUE |
LOVES
OF PHAROAH(1922) Emil Jannings’ passion for a commoner creates havoc; perhaps
Lubitsch’s most opulent spectacle. Plus the recently re-discovered
comedy When I Was Dead (1915), starring director Lubitsch as a
chess fanatic who pretends to kill himself in order to get at his wife
and mother-in-law. (Note: this was erroneously identified as a drama
in our calendar; it’s not!)
9:20
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ONE HOUR WITH YOU (1932,
CO-DIRECTED BY GEORGE CUKOR) When Jeanette MacDonald realizes visiting friend
Genevieve Tobin is putting the moves on doctor hubbie Maurice Chevalier,
she decides “what’s sauce for the goose...,” even as Tobin’s
spouse Roland Young is bringing in the private detectives. Remake of Lubitsch’s
silent The Marriage Circle. 80 minutes.2:00, 5:30, 9:00 THE SMILING LIEUTENANT
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 ONE HOUR WITH YOU |
 TO BE OR NOT TO BE |
TO BE OR NOT TO BE(1942) “So they call me Concentration Camp Erhardt!” gloats
Gestapo man Sig Rumann to a masquerading Jack Benny — in reality
Joseph Tura, “that great, great Polish actor” — then
proceeds to criticize Benny’s Hamlet: “What you did to Shakespeare,
we’re doing to Poland.” Criticized in its time for abominable
taste, but now considered one of the director’s supreme masterpieces.
With Carole Lombard in her final role, as Benny’s almost-straying
wife. 99 minutes. |
THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER(1940) In Frank Morgan’s Budapest emporium, clerks James Stewart
and Margaret Sullavan (“a peerless performance” — Kael)
battle in person without realizing they’ve been carrying on a lonelyhearts
romance by mail. “Close to perfection — one of the most beautifully
acted and paced romantic comedies.” – Pauline Kael. 99 minutes. |
 THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER |
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 THE STUDENT PRINCE (in Old Heidelberg) |
THE MERRY WIDOW(1934) Chevalier-MacDonald-Lubitsch redux, for the ultimate production of the Lehar operetta, out-lavishing even Von Stroheim’s silent version, and complete with streamlined lyrics by Lorenz Hart, hilarious support from Edward Everett Horton and Una Merkel, and the grandest of grand balls. 99 minutes.SUN: 1:20, 5:20, 9:20 MON: 1:00, 5:00 THE STUDENT PRINCE (in Old Heidelberg)(1927) Crown prince Ramon Novarro, happy at last as simple Heidelberg student, and in love with innkeeper’s niece Norma Shearer, must renounce all for the throne. Lubitsch for once eschewed sly innuendo for a tender evocation of lost young love, creating the impossible: a silent operetta. 105 minutes. LIVE PIANO ACCOMPANIMENT BY STEVE STERNER AT ALL SHOWSSUN: 3:20 ,
7:20MON: 3:00
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ROMEO AND JULIET IN THE SNOW (1920)
Alpine treatment of Shakespeare, complete with happy ending twist. “A
deliberately gross re-telling.” – John Gillett. 44 minutes.
LIVE PIANO ACCOMPANIMENT BY STEVE STERNER7:10
ANNA BOLEYN
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 ANNA BOLEYN |
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THE LOVE PARADE (1929)
“In all of Sylvania, there’s only one leg as good as this one,”
boasts queen Jeanette MacDonald, uncovering one gam — “and that’s
it!” she says, flashing the other. But even though count Maurice Chevalier
is her “Dream Lover,” he still complains “Nobody is using
it now” in Lubitsch’s first sound triumph. “The first
truly cinematic screen musical in America.” – Theodore Huff.
107 minutes.3:20, 7:15 MONTE CARLO(1930)
On the run from her wedding, negligée-clad Countess Jeanette MacDonald
trills “Beyond the Blue Horizon” in tune with the Blue Express
that’s taking her to Monte Carlo, and to count-pretending-to-be-a-hairdresser
Jack Buchanan (his only other U.S. film: The Band Wagon) with their
“Give Me a Moment, Please” telephone duet a further highlight.
90 minutes.1:30, 5:25, 9:15 |
 THE LOVE PARADE |
 DESIGN FOR LIVING |
DESIGN FOR LIVING(1933) Ménage à trois à Paris, as commercial artist Miriam Hopkins shacks up with both struggling playwright Fredric March and undiscovered painter Gary Cooper. Noel Coward was reportedly delighted with Ben Hecht’s adaptation, though the latter chortled that he left only two lines of the original. 90 minutes.WED: 3:40, 7:10 THU: 2:40 |
BLUEBEARD’S EIGHTH WIFE(1938) In classic “meeting cute,” American millionaire Gary Cooper and impoverished Claudette Colbert buy, respectively, the top and bottom of the same pair of pj’s; but after love blossoms, she finds he’s a seven-time divorcé. First screenwriting collaboration of Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder. With David Niven, Edward Everett Horton. 80 minutes.WED: 2:00, 5:30, 9:00 THU: 1:00, 4:30 |
 BLUEBEARD’S EIGHTH WIFE |
ROSITA(1923) Duel of the titans: Lubitsch, making his first Hollywood picture,
matched wits with producer Mary Pickford, starring as a fiery Spanish
street singer who catches the eye of a lecherous king. 103 minutes.
LIVE PIANO ACCOMPANIMENT BY STEVE STERNER
THE MARRIAGE CIRCLE(1924) Doctor Monte Blue is happily married to Florence Vidor, Professor Adolphe Menjou is unhappily married to Marie Prevost — who decides to chase Blue — while Blue’s partner is hoping for an affair with Vidor — and then things really get complicated. 80 minutes. LIVE PIANO ACCOMPANIMENT BY STEVE STERNER9:00
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 THE MARRIAGE CIRCLE |
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(1932) “Baron, I have a confession to make. You are a crook.
Would you please pass the salt?” Herbert Marshall and Miriam
Hopkins share champagne, caviar, and moonlight, while debonairly picking
each other’s pockets — the beginning of a beautiful partnership
— but Kay Francis proves rival as well as mark. “Spins a wonderful,
sophisticated tale in praise of immorality, money and sex.” –
Time Out (London). “The masterpiece of American sophisticated
cinema.” – Leslie Halliwell. 83 minutes.
(1931)
Roguish lieutenant Maurice Chevalier loves violinist Claudette Colbert
but gets trapped into marrying checkers-playing princess Miriam Hopkins.
But things look up when good sport Colbert musically advises frumpish
Hopkins to “Jazz Up Your Lingerie.” 88 minutes.